Best Budgeting Apps [2023]

It might be difficult to manage your finances in today's fast-paced world. To help you keep track of your spending and savings, you can use one of the many budgeting apps available. The top budgeting apps include Rocket Money for its bill negotiation feature, Simplifi for its simple budgeting interface, SoFi Relay³ for its comprehensive financial picture, and more.  Every budgeting software offers special features and advantages that can help you reach your financial goals.

Budgeting apps can help you track your spending and keep an eye on your income and net worth while keeping it all simple. Choose the right one for your individual needs, and you’ll be more likely to succeed at maintaining your budget.

The 7 best budgeting apps

1. Rocket Money: Best for cutting your bills
2. Simplifi: Best for user-friendly budgeting
3. SoFi Relay: Best for tracking your money in one place
4. YNAB (You Need a Budget): Best for cross-platform budgeting
   
5. Wally: Best for family budgeting
6. Mint: Best for tracking your credit score
7. Honeydue: Best for couples

Comparison of the best budgeting apps

Budgeting app	Best for	Why it’s special	Pricing
Rocket Money	Cutting your bills	Rocket Money cancels unused subscriptions and negotiates bills on your behalf, making the process simple.	Free version $4 to $12 per month
Simplifi	User-friendly budgeting	Simplifi gives you a simple and user-friendly platform for everyday budgeting.	30-day free trial period $3.99 per month for the monthly plan $47.88 per year for the annual plan
SoFi Relay	Tracking your money in one place	SoFi Relay makes it easy to track all your bank, investment, and retirement accounts in one place.	Free
YNAB	Cross-platform budgeting	When you sign up for YNAB, you’ll get access to the web app, along with YNAB for iPhone, Android, iPad, Apple Watch, and Alexa.	34-day free trial period $14.99 per month on the monthly plan $99 per year for the annual plan
Wally	Family budgeting	Wally allows you to set group budgets and sync information about all your accounts.	Free version $8.99 per month for the Wally Gold monthly plan $39.96 per year for the Wally Gold annual plan $99.99 for the Wally Gold lifetime membership
Mint	Tracking your credit score	Mint provides free credit score access along with a suite of budgeting tools.	Free version $0.99 per month for the ad-free version $4.99 per month for Mint Premium (only available on iOS)
Honeydue	Couples	Honeydue allows couples to budget in one place, mutually manage their finances, and divvy up balances and expenses.	Free

Rocket Money: Best for cutting your bills

Available for: iOS devices on the App Store and Android devices on Google Play.

Pricing: Free version. $4 to $12 per month for premium version.

Why we like Rocket Money: Rocket Money can help its users save hundreds of dollars per year on average by canceling unwanted subscriptions, negotiating recurring bills with providers, and securing refunds on certain fees. The app also allows you to track your spending, connect your bank accounts, and automate your savings. It also gives you access to educational resources about budgeting, debt, investing, and more.

The app offers a simple user experience and comprehensive features that we like. The app makes it easy to track income and expenses, set budgeting goals, and receive personalized budgeting recommendations for saving money. It also imports your transactions and creates simple yet detailed reports, and can even negotiate recurring bills and subscriptions for you.

What we don't like about Rocket Money: While we can use Rocket Money for free, there are functions that only premium subscribers can access. This includes automated cancellations, overdraft and late fee refunds, and credit reports. Additionally, the company makes money by taking a portion of your savings after their expert team works to reduce costs on your behalf. Rocket Money allows you to choose from 30% to 60% of the amount saved as its success fee. On the other hand, if it can’t lower your bills, you pay nothing.

Visit Rocket Money

... Or read our Rocket Money review.

Simplifi: Best for user-friendly budgeting

Available for: iOS devices on the App Store and Android devices on Google Play.

Pricing: 30-day free trial period. $3.99 per month for the monthly plan. $47.88 per year for the annual plan.

Why we like Simplifi: Simplifi is a new tool by Quicken that helps you with money management and financial planning. It has an interactive interface and can connect to over 14,000 financial institutions to track your progress toward your financial goals. The app automatically categorizes your transactions, including debit card purchases, to help you identify unnecessary expenses and track your monthly spending. 

You can set up custom limits for each category to help prevent you from overspending. You’ll also be able to establish and track your savings goals from the app. The app can also track your bills to assist you with paying them on time and avoid late fees.

What we don't like about Simplifi: Simplifi doesn't offer a free version. This means that once your trial period is over, you have to subscribe to continue using the app. Additionally, it doesn't have specific tools such as a debt payoff tracker or a retirement planner.

Visit Simplifi

... Or read our Simplifi review.

SoFi Relay: Best for tracking your money in one place

Available for: iOS devices on the App Store and Android devices on Google Play.

Pricing: Free.

Why we like SoFi Relay: SoFi Relay is a tool offered by SoFi, one of the best online banks. SoFi Relay provides a comprehensive view of your finances by allowing you to link all your existing bank accounts, investment accounts, and retirement accounts into a single dashboard. You can view the dashboard via the SoFi mobile app or via a browser.

You can use SoFi Relay to automatically organize your spending categories, view your upcoming bill payments, and set goals that fit your personal budgeting method. One of the standout features is the credit monitoring section, where you can keep track of your credit score and view tips for improving it at no additional cost.

What we don't like about SoFi Relay: You need to register a free account with SoFi to use SoFi Relay. This isn't a significant downside, as most apps require a similar step. You may even double down and opt for opening a SoFi Checking and Savings⁴ account, one of my favorite bank accounts. It has $0 monthly fees, offers access to high annual percentage yield (APY)² with direct deposits, and is insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)¹ .   

Visit SoFi Relay.

YNAB: Best for cross-platform budgeting

Available on: iOS devices on the App Store and Android devices on Google Play.

Pricing: 34-day free trial period. $14.99 per month on the monthly plan. $99 per year for the annual plan.

Why we like YNAB: You Need a Budget (YNAB) is a budgeting app that offers extensive cross-platform support, including desktop, iPhone, Android, iPad, Apple Watch, and Alexa. It has a dedicated following and reports that new users save an average of $600 in their first two months and $6,000 in their first year.

YNAB is a proactive system where you manually categorize and track spending. It allows you to set up zero-based budgeting goals to manage income and pay down debt faster or avoid overspending. YNAB offers a higher level of control than other apps that make spending and savings decisions for you.

What we don't like about YNAB: YNAB is one of the pricier apps. Despite its price, it requires time and effort to categorize your transactions, which can be time-consuming and may not be a good fit if you prefer a more hands-off approach to your finances.

Visit YNAB...

...Or read our YNAB review.

Wally: Best for family budgeting

Available on: iOS devices on the App Store and Android devices on Google Play.

Pricing: Free version. $8.99 per month for the Wally Gold monthly plan. $39.96 per year for the Wally Gold annual plan. $99.99 for the Wally Gold lifetime membership.

Why we like Wally: Wally is a personal finance app that allows you to connect all your financial accounts, budget by category, collaborate on a shared budget, schedule bill reminders, upload important documents, and save receipts and warranties.

One of the main features of Wally is WallyGPT, a feature that uses recent advances in artificial intelligence to power your personal finance experience. This feature enables you to converse with the app and ask it about your expenses and savings in natural language. The mobile app also allows you to track your bills to stay on top of their due dates. You can also take pictures of your receipts to make it easy to keep track of spending.

What we don't like about Wally: While there is a free version of Wally, the paid version costs more than some other budgeting apps.

Visit Wally.

Mint: Best for tracking your credit score

Available on: iOS devices on the App Store and Android devices on Google Play.

Pricing: Free version. $0.99 per month for the ad-free version. $4.99 per month for Mint Premium (only available on iOS).

Why we like Mint: Mint is a budgeting app owned by Intuit, the fintech company behind the popular TurboTax platform. Mint allows you to regularly check your credit score and receive alerts when new credit information is available. The app has a free version and two paid versions, one that's available for Android devices and removes ads, and another that offers additional features such as subscription cancellation, advanced data visualization, and graphs, but is only available for iOS users.

Mint allows you to track your bills, get reminders about due dates, and receive notifications when your funds are low. It also has a budget tracker that automatically categorizes your expenses in real time and allows you to add custom tags and assign categories for transactions.

What we don't like about Mint: Like some other apps on the list, Mint mislabels transactions in some cases. This leads to providing inaccurate spending data when investments are marked as normal purchases. Mint also experiences occasional connectivity issues with certain financial institutions, which isn't out of the ordinary but may interrupt your experience.

Visit Mint.

Honeydue: Best for couples

Available for: iOS devices on the App Store and Android devices on Google Play.

Pricing: Free.

Why we like Honeydue: Honeydue is a free budget planning app for couples that's available for iOS and Android. It helps partners manage their money together by tracking expenses, bills, and financial accounts, including joint bank accounts and investment accounts.

Couples can choose how much information to share, set monthly spending limits, add custom categories, split expenses, and settle balances. The app also offers a joint Cash bank account with a debit Visa card. Honeydue aims to provide clear financial pictures for couples to ease communication about money habits and goals, reducing misunderstandings. At the same time, we appreciate that the app still enables each person to maintain the level of privacy they need by enabling custom information sharing.

What we don't like about Honeydue: You can’t access your information through your laptop or desktop device, limiting you to using your phone. This can make it harder to dig deeper into the information available on the app.

Visit Honeydue.

What is a budgeting app?

Budgeting apps are a type of digital platform that assists you in keeping track of your income and expenses. Some of these platforms are available on mobile devices, while others are available on both mobile and desktop devices.

Some budgeting apps go beyond tracking your income and expenses by offering tools such as automated savings, bill negotiation, and more. By pointing out areas where you may reduce expenses and giving you concrete methods to take charge of your finances, these extra features can help you save money and improve your overall financial health.

How do budgeting apps work?

The main goal of most budgeting apps is simplifying the way you perform everything from basic budgeting to investment tracking.

Instead of using a pen and paper or an Excel sheet to write down everything, many budgeting apps connect to your bank or financial institution to automatically import and categorize your transactions.

The categories a budgeting app may use can include income and expenses by type, such as dining, phone bills, insurance premiums, and more. This helps you see the areas where you might be able to cut back on your spending, keep an eye on your due bills, cancel subscriptions you don’t need, and more.

Some budgeting apps also offer investment tracking or credit score monitoring. These apps help you get a complete picture of your financial status and may even propose practical measures to improve your finances or creditworthiness.

How to choose the best budgeting app

Here are some things to consider when choosing the best budgeting app for you:

• Cost: Some budgeting apps are free, but apps that offer the best features may charge a one-off fee or use a paid subscription. Think about the features you need and if it’s worth paying for them.
• Connection with your bank accounts: Not all budgeting apps are created equal. Some apps might simply be better at connecting with your bank and financial institutions. Before settling for one app, make sure to test a few to find the one that offers the most stable connection.
• Bill negotiation: Some budgeting apps offer bill negotiation services to help you save money on your regular bills, such as those for streaming services, internet, or phone service. These apps can examine your bills, find any areas where you might be able to save money or receive a discount, and negotiate with the service providers on your behalf to lower your monthly payments.
• Automated savings: Some budgeting apps allow you to set up automatic transfers from your checking account to a savings account or set aside money for specific savings objectives with some budgeting tools. Both the amount you wish to save and the frequency of the transfers are up to you. This can help you to increase your savings Without much work.

FAQ about budgeting apps

Best budgeting apps: bottom line

If you’ve never budgeted before, it’s simple to learn how to manage your money, and it's something you can look forward to. The right financial product could help you get better control over where your money goes and improve your cash flow, which will help you if you’re drowning in debt. And no matter your budgeting style, there’s an app that can help you better manage your money.

In order to be successful, narrow down your options to a few that fit your needs. Decide if you want your budget to be restrictive or flexible, automatic or manual, and shared or individual. Determine what devices you’ll use to access the service and how much time you can devote to startup and ongoing use. From there, try out a few of your picks. One interface may stand out to you more than others, or you might find certain features particularly helpful.

Once you’ve selected your ideal budgeting tool, you should also consider your budgeting strategy. Some people may use an envelope budgeting technique to split their money, a 50/30/20 system to divide their income between needs, wants, and savings, or opt for a zero-based budgeting system that assigns a purpose for every dollar they earn. Learn more about these budgeting systems, and you may be on your way to a healthier and wealthier future.

Our methodology

To develop our list of the best budget apps, we looked at popular apps and evaluated them according to a set of criteria we consider critical to the consumer, including product features, product interfaces, pricing, and ease of use. We did not evaluate all companies in the category. We used editorial judgment to determine what use or type of user each budgeting app is best for.